February 11, 2025
Letter

Evolution not a theory

Removing the study of evolution from science curricula is absurd, as has been proposed in one Maine school. The tenets of evolution are a comprehensive framework from which to view biological science. The term “theory of evolution” is often misinterpreted as meaning unproven. In science, a theory is composed of unifying principles supported by a convincing body of evidence. Evolution is supported by an enormous amount of scientific endeavor. Concepts are modified as new knowledge is gained, often making the theory more encompassing.

Students who plan careers in science and who wish to be well-rounded citizens need to have an understanding of evolution because so much of what we know about the structure of the biological universe is based on that comprehensive framework.

The idea that evolution is not provable is to miss the importance of how scientific theory guides our thinking and research. Can evolution be watched in progress? Certainly, we can observe the natural selection process (survival of the fittest until they can reproduce). The industrial revolution in northern Europe transformed populations of light-colored moths into dark-colored ones as soot darkened the trees on which moths perched. Populations of winter flounder along coastal Maine now reproduce at smaller size and younger age as a result of commercial fishing removing larger flounders before they were large enough to become mature.

Are these examples proof? Not by themselves, but they form part of the evidence supporting evolution as demonstrable.

Creationism, distinctly unprovable, belongs in a philosophy course on comparative religions. Most irksome is that creationism assumes that the Christian-centric view of the formation and structure of the world is the correct one. Native American and non-Western religions may have entirely different views. Creationism and evolution should not meet in a scientific classroom.

James D. McCleave

Orono


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